


A Way

by freakyleinchen



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, Gen, Original Character(s), Short Story, a lot of it is metaphoric, life - Freeform, not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 19:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14479266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freakyleinchen/pseuds/freakyleinchen
Summary: A short story about life, death and the way you take in life





	A Way

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short story I wrote ages ago and recently found again in my files. I originally wrote this in German, my mother tongue, and then translated it into English. I hope I could preserve the flow and meaning of the story during the translation. Constructive critisism would be appreciated :)

A cold wind blows on the rooftop of the skyscraper and sweeps a few strands of hair into my face. I sit right next to the fire escape. It leads from the roof all the way down to the ground, in a zickzack shape, a door on every floor. Back and forth. It’s a steep flight of stairs, old and rusted.  
I sit right next to it on the broad edge of the roof fifty floors above the street. The wind sweeps through my hair.

I turn around and wave the girl over. She hesitates because she is afraid of the height. The thought of the much air between her and the safe ground makes her nervous. But she comes over and sits next to me directly behind the broad edge of the roof. She sits with her legs crossed and her hands pressed to the ground underneath her to keep herself grounded. My feet are swinging freely over the nothingness.

I point to the ground far below us. “Look!” She doesn’t look.

“If I wanted to get down what would you recommend?” “Take the stairs!” she replies with absolute certainty. “These stairs?” She nods.

“But it would be easier to jump! If I take the stairs I have to walk all the way, every floor. It would be hard and in the end I’d be exhausted. If I was falling I wouldn’t have to do anything! I wouldn’t be exhausted and I would reach the ground a lot faster. And it would be fun! I would be completely free! I would be flying. It would be the easier way.” I explain but she shakes her head.

“If you jump you’d die as soon as you reach the ground. And you couldn’t enjoy the fall because you would know: ‘I’m about to die’. If you take the stairs it would be exhausting. You would sweat and get thirsty. But if you take a bottle of water with you, you could do it!” A smile flutters across her face.

“The stairs could break and I’d still fall. I would still die!” 

“Yes, they could. But they probably wouldn’t. You probably wouldn’t die.” 

“Somebody could set up an air cushion I could jump on.” 

“Somebody could! But they probably won’t. So, which way do you choose? The quick easy one or the safe exhausting one?”  
I think about it. She patiently presses her palms to the roof.

“I’ll take the fire escape!” We get up and start our descent. She carries a bottle of water with her.

She was wrong: On the forty-third floor the stairs breaks. We fall.

She was right: No one sets up an air cushion.


End file.
